Yesnin Salvador Bonilla-Iscoa is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Maria De Los Angeles Paulino. He allegedly stabbed her 16 times on May 10, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities used discarded cans of iced tea to obtain the DNA of a man in Texas to tie him to a murder in Florida.
Yesnin Salvador Bonilla-Iscoa, 30, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 52-year-old Maria De Los Angeles Paulino.
Paulino’s boyfriend called 911 after he discovered Paulino unresponsive with “obvious signs of trauma” in her car in Orange County, Florida, around 12:19 p.m. on May 10, a probable cause arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime said. Paulino’s sister had contacted the boyfriend to say they hadn’t heard from her. After calling her several times to no avail, the boyfriend pinged her cellphone on the Find My iPhone app and learned she was in an area in northern Orange County.
The boyfriend went to the location where he found her body.
He told deputies he had last talked to her about 7 p.m. the night before. While deputies were on the scene investigating, a bystander came up to say he saw a bloody knife wrapped in a cloth down the street. Cops determined the knife was used to stab Paulino 16 times and had her blood on it.
Security camera footage at Paulino’s apartment complex showed she left around 3:18 a.m. the day she was murdered. Her cellphone, which was recovered at the scene, was analyzed and showed someone called her about 3:11 a.m. and she returned the call about 25 minutes later. It was the last activity on her phone before she died.
The phone number belonged to Bonilla-Iscoa. It was saved under the contact “Abaca Rd Y Rose Av,” which is a location close to where she was found dead, according to investigators. Detectives also analyzed Bonilla-Oscoa’s phone number, which showed he was in the area at the time of the murder, deputies said. The affidavit did not give a motive for the slaying.
Police learned Bonilla-Oscoa had moved to Lubbock, Texas, to live with her sister after the murder. Lubbock police conducted surveillance on the suspect and collected discarded aluminum iced tea cans in hopes of obtaining his DNA. On Nov. 21, a lab test determined there was a match between the DNA from the cans to the DNA found on the murder weapon.
Bonilla-Oscoa was arrested. He was extradited to Florida on Tuesday. He’s being held in the Orange County Jail without bond.
